Deloitte issues refund for error-ridden Australian government report that used AI

Financial Times

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Deloitte issues a refund for an error-ridden Australian government report that used AI

The question is whether it used Claude? It needs strict checking and re-checking.  

Reproductive Insurgency

 

A scholarly paper from Duke University describes the insurgency against reproductive racial capitalism. 

"Such protests reveal the persistence of forms of specifically reproductive contestation that were pervasive in the context of forced reproduction in slavery. Here we are thinking about the long history of enslaved women regulating their own fertility through abstinence, emmenagogues, abortifacients, and self-managed abortions (Schiebinger; Schwartz; Fett; Latimer). We are also thinking about how a radical politics of abolition feminism remains to be realized. We have seen the perverse impact of the form of liberal abolitionism that was prevalent in the nineteenth century, which used women’s reproductive capacities to hijack the control of formerly enslaved women’s reproductive labor beyond formal Emancipation (Turner). We have seen the end of the slave trade without seeing the end of slavery (Sharpe; Hartman, Lose). We have seen former slaveowners explicitly building a system of extractive labor based on women’s reproduction after 1807. Likewise, in the present, we can clearly see, if we are willing to think outside the box about the meaning of substantive reproductive freedom, that liberal ideas of “the right to privacy” have not and will not suffice to protect the basic human right to control one’s body."

The authors imagine that they are female slaves in a 19th-century Southern plantation, where the owner is forcing them to have children to increase his capital. So they protest by refusing the capitalist's project. The whole thing is imaginary; they are fighting an inexistent slavery, like toddlers refusing to eat.  

It is childish, to say the least.   

P.S.: In Israel, there is a saying "הם חיים בסרט" they are living in a movie. Now that the internet is an important part of our "lived" life, it is easy to lose contact with reality. The authors above are living in a different reality, with female slaves being forced to breed. Of exploited slave-workers, in an invisible dictatorship. They are discriminated against and oppressed by an inexplicable system. 

The best proof of living in the real world is if they are making money. They are, since a university pays them an excellent salary, and that proves that they are in touch with reality, and the "reproductive insurgency" nonsense is an effective survival tool. They are living in a movie, maybe, but it allows them to enjoy a comfortable existence. Oh boy!

Manteros

 I studied in the city of La Plata, a French planned city built specifically to become the capital of the Province of Buenos Aires. Its public buildings, the University, the Cathedral, all were copies of Paris, irradiating wealth and good taste. The city with diagonals was a success. The local paper El Dia informs that "in 2023, la Municipalidad relevó a más de 1.100 personas ejerciendo la venta en el espacio público, concentradas en lugares emblemáticos como Plaza San Martín, Plaza Italia y Plaza Rocha."  (In 2023, there were 1100 individuals in the informal trade sector, selling second-hand clothing on the streets. They are called manteros.) It is difficult for me to imagine such poverty in that administrative-university city. In this era of universal, fantastic progress, Argentina has sunk to Third-World level. What a pity. 

The pic shows the manteros of Moreno, a suburb.

London is a financial backwater

 

I remember when London was the center of the financial world. It financed the train network in Argentina, developed the frozen meat exports, the mines in South Africa, and coffee plantations in Brazil. In Bauchi, they developed the peanut cultivation, created the Bauchi Meat Plant, etc. 

 The British Navy was a force for morality; it eliminated the slave trade worldwide, against the material interests of the Empire. 

All that, gone. 

President Trump mentioned the disaster that London has turned into. I am a lifelong Anglophile. I don't want the disappearance of the English nation. What a pity.

PS: Overall equity offerings on TASE raised a total of NIS 5.6 billion in H1-2025 (1.7 billion USD). H1 means the first six months of 2025, so we should rank in the 7th - 9th. place, but Bloomberg ignores us. Money is flowing into Israel.  

Weak Hands are being Shaken Out

 NVDA smashes through resistance levels, breaking above the consolidation that has been in place since mid-July. Weak hands have been shaken out, so we could be seeing a short-term vacuum kick in...

In trading lingo, "weak hands" refer to jittery investors who sell quickly during dips or periods of uncertainty. "Shaken out" means they've been scared off and sold their shares, like during NVDA's recent consolidation. Now, with fewer sellers, the stock might rise more easily as "strong hands" (committed holders) remain.

I am learning new things every day.

The reasoning seems correct. In the coming days, we shall see if it really is.

Pachacamac

 Thirty years ago, I visited the temple of Pachacamac (the belly button of the world, in Quechua) and the totemic idol in the central room in the upper terrace of the sanctuary. I wanted to look it up on the internet and found this pic. This is not the original idol; what I saw then was a twisted piece of old wood, with sacrificial remnants around in the room. It was unprotected and looked its 400 years old. I also explored the nearby House of the Virgins, where girls from all over the Inca empire were educated and prepared to marry the Inca. When I visited the deserted sanctuary, it was still well preserved because it never rains in Lurin. I could imagine the Spanish soldiers arriving and raping the girls. The recent pics show parts of the ruins occupied by houses and streets, and parts badly rebuilt for tourist consumption. 

Composite bow

 

The composite bow was a great invention. I thought it was a Hunnish-Mongol weapon. But no, it was a Mesopotamian development.